End of the month…Time to pull out the calculators and see how we did with savings and budgeting this month!

Challenges-

For me personally, this was a challenging month to save. My husband and I are traveling to Europe this month (read all about it here) and have had to make some out-of-the-norm purchases for the trip. Lots of little extras that we wouldn’t usually be buying as well as setting aside extra money for the 7 days that my husband is off work (he doesn’t have vacation pay). We’re also saving up money for souvenirs and restaurant eating. And pastries…I plan on eating lots of pastries!

Cheers-

We’ve been budgeting for this trip to Europe for the last year so I’ve still been able to save for Disney alongside saving for Europe. It’s not as much as I’d like but I also don’t want to scrimp on my European trip either!

Savings:

Disney Visa savings points – $51.74 total -$9.10 earned last month.

Contest Winnings – $500 for groceries from this Pinterest contest (Sprouts gift cards). This definitely helped offset our budget and we didn’t have to shop for food anywhere else all month.

Made birthday presents for kid parties instead of buying them – savings of $30

Bought vacation clothes from ThredUp instead of new at the store – savings of around $50 versus buying new

Loss:

New shoes for the trip – $54

Driver’s License Renewal (for both of us in the same month!) – $66

New shorts for my trip (they didn’t have my size on ThredUp) – $24

Husband’s birthday present – $39

Ate out three times with the family last month (late nights at work & too hot in the house to cook!) – $65